Noi's Wedding

Khun Noi, a member of staff at SIIT (and my part-time Thai language teacher), got married today. The wedding was in her brother's home in Rayong. About 10 of us from SIIT took a day off work and had a day trip to the eastern area of Thailand. A van was organised to leave Thammasat Rangsit campus at 6am, but some of the girls took longer than planned to put on their makeup, and we left sometime closer to 7am. It was a 2 and half hour trip, mainly via a multi-lane motorway. For the first hour it was quite rowdy, with a stream of gossip between the 8 girls. But people soon fell asleep, making for a peaceful trip. We arrived just in time for the groom's arrival at the house (walking from the neighbours house). There was an official ceremony inside (we actually missed the Buddhist monks ceremony at 7:30am). The bride and groom exchanged rings, the groom handed over a wad of cash and some family members said a few words. Then all the guests gave their best wishes to the newly wed couple. Then the celebrations: an informal but delicious banquet lunch outside, as well as photos and mingling between the guests. The wedding was over by about 1pm, so the group of us from SIIT had a quick stop at the beach and then headed into a market in Rayong for some shopping. I made the mistake of buying only one packet of durian chips - they are delicious! It was a great wedding, and nice mid-week day trip. Check out the photos in the gallery.